Puzzle

Dear Editor:

Sometimes small things create big consequences. In Chaos Theory, the name for this phenomenon is “The Butterfly Effect.” The term “Butterfly Effect” describes those instances when a small change in one place elicits a much larger impact sometime in the future.

Can we say that about the NRA supporters or, let’s be honest and call them by their common name, baby boomers? It’s probably not fair to just label them greedy, spoiled, multiple divorced (so much for vows) and reverent bible thumpers. It is fair and ironic to label them as the generation that beget the generation that brought about the greatest level of social tolerance for personal sexual freedom, gains for females in all spheres and racial harmony. Maybe these children are the Butterfly Effect. Maybe not. Like the primitive part of our brain that controls all our living functions, Baby Boomers will kill their host (nation) rather than see ideological change.

So, why would this same group be so virulent against all their own children’s accomplishments; i.e., prefer the Patriot act vs. constitutional freedoms, slur the current president on ideological grounds when they really mean race, spend years talkin’ personal (me-me) choice when they really mean my-way-or-the-highway, choose suppression of women’s rights while moaning, “Gee if we get out of Afghanistan what-will-happen-to-the-women and gays … oooh those deviants.” But Boomers were the generation who made spouse swapping a national pastime, and then they became Republicans.

It’s a puzzle. I’m betting that few if any of them understand the economic argument between the extremes on Friedman vs. Keynes, yet they are quite willing to cut the budget on entitlements for their children. There must be an explanation for their predation on all who cling to their children’s freedoms (liberals). Maybe that’s it: Father knows best and Mama, still barefoot and in the kitchen, as usual, just goes along.